Norman Yakeleya

I look forward to the initiative that the Minister will bring forward to the Members on the Aboriginal Achievement Initiative. We know students have to do hard work. They have to be disciplined. They have to have the parents influence them to go to school. The Minister is right; if you’re not in school, valuable lessons will not be learned. In terms of monitoring support for students, is the Minister monitoring the types of supports that can be provided in the school and the types of supports needed to have successful graduates to come out with a quality diploma?

Thank you. Is there a possibility of getting the latest explanation that the Minister gave us on paper for my reading and reviewing?

Mr. Chair, my question is to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I want to ask the Minister in terms of the education issue here. I want to ask the Minister what improvements to education have been made in the Sahtu communities because of the new investments approved through the budget process.

Thank you, Minister. That does tell me with the new structure now I feel that Ministers have heard our concerns on this side here and a tightening of the belt, so to speak, in terms of how we proceed to conclude the construction of the bridge here with the corporation.

I guess there are a lot of things that we really can’t say because of the sensitivity and the negotiations and the confidentiality of some of the issues here, so I guess I’ll wait to see in terms of on a going forward basis dealing with the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation, because they were one of the key players in this whole...

Also I just want to ask the Ministers about the role of the Deh Cho Bridge Corporation in the new arrangements and setup going forward for the corporation and the status of the corporation for this bridge here.

Mr. Chair, I’d like to say that’s good news and I hope we see the bill sooner than later. I wanted to ask the Minister about the uncertainty of some of the initiatives that are happening in the North regarding infrastructure on projects. Does that, from a Minister’s point of view, the department’s point of view, throw some type of wrench into our financial fiscal outlook or framework in terms of what you’ve presented us here? Is it possible that you could be presenting something totally different in two or three months down the road in terms of what you have before us here? Thank you.

Just one question if I can see if I can get a satisfactory answer, then I’ll be done. I wanted to ask the Minister about the negotiations. In the details he had talked about the Northwest Territories realizing the economic potential in the Northwest Territories. Does the Minister have an idea or assessment as to the economic potential in the North right down the whole valley? I know some organizations have put some numbers to it, you know, in the amount of millions or billions. Has this department put some numbers to the potential for economic potential in the North? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, I wanted to ask the Minister in regard to his comments on page 2 of 2. He mentioned something about releasing a public discussion paper on establishment of an NWT Heritage Fund. Does the Minister have a date as to when this is going to be released to the public for discussion and what type of plan he has to have a discussion with the public on this? Is it going to be through various forums?

From this side here, I certainly appreciate the Minister’s willingness to look at this. There are certainly no guarantees in any type of reallocation or jigging of the numbers here or even to increase it. So I do appreciate his openness to see if we can get some support to have a look at it and maybe come back in the coming year to see if we can do something with this.

I do want to talk to the Minister regarding the special event funding for aboriginal organizations. Is it okay for the Minister to provide us with a list of the type of organizations and funding we can have? I know some of the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to let the Assembly know that I certainly wanted to say how pleased I was with the introduction of the first Elders’ Parliament that you’re going to have this year. I think it’s a unique approach. It gives the elders who are going to participate in the parliament a sense of what us young leaders go through, a sense of the work. I think this is a good initiative that should be successful. You always have something to learn and it will be very good. I was talking to some of my elders in Deline over the past weekend and they’re quite excited about this. So I think...